Many Public Relations practioners regard themselves as creative rather than scientific. In my view, of course a PR practitioner is seen as the one with a creative mind-set, but surely, the power of manipulation and persuasion, which is posed on specific target audiences, is to some extent scientific, is it not?
Many such as Grunig and Hunt (1984), have argued that PR is still a young profession but it only really reached its status in the late 1980s. It is evident that PR is an exciting discipline with skills, techniques and strategies to offer.Therefore, Practitioners feel that they should be recognised as professionals. Additionally, this perception of practitioners is due to the fact that there has been significant growth and implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility within organisations.
The PR industry is changing and developing considerably. There are many reasons for this. However there are 4 main reasons of change. Firstly, The growth in communications has aided PR to grow. Due to a variety of channels, there is the need to respond to and deal with information overload. Secondly, The advent of new media offers more direct and targeted means of communications, for example, internet based technologies. Thirdly, Increased globalisation and competition has enabled the practice of PR to respond to situations globally, in a competitive manor and finally, The increase in rates and levels if change – unpredictability is heightened as we live in a more pressured and complex environment. Therefore, as PR changes, it is seeking to be more professional in meeting the industry standards and more strategic in terms of working at higher levels aswell as well as working on a ‘technical role’ level.
It is because of these main reasons why PR works on tactics – getting things done on a more strategic level and is forced to contribute to decision making within organisations. Therefore, we can suggest that PR is moving towards a higher professional status.
In addition to this, theorists such as Gregory 2004, have stated that PR is ‘dynamic, fast moving and is at the centre of action’. One of the main reasons as to why this is so is because if the fact that organisations are increasingly recognising communications as being at the heart of their operations. This is proved by the statistics from the IPR, which show that 17% and all FTSE 100 companies have a PR department.
Do you feel that the practice of Public Relations needs to do more than just ' getting things done on a more strategic level' to reach the status that it should be at?
3 comments:
an interesting point of view that can be related to a number of different up and coming professions and a view that i agree with. it also gives me a new point of view about PR and what is involved and gives me more respect for those making a career from it as a lot of effort seems to be made with making it a respected profession enriched with academic theory and knowledge. this blog is a good start in widening and changing peoples perspective of PR and those that aim to make a profession out of it.
It is true that PR should have a more professional status. However, today, this status is half-recognised and anybody can declare to be "in PR" without even knowing what it's all about. After a few months studying a MA in PR, I can tell that it is not that easy to proclame oneself a PR practitioner. It requires skills, and there are so many things to know, to analyse, etc, that PR can also be called a science. After all, this is how Bernays called it!
In my opinion, one of the main reasons why PR still does not hold a professional status is the assumption that so many skills used in PR practice are not industry-specific and can be applied to so many different jobs. If one can easily make a transition from being a journalist or an advertising executive to being a PR practitioner, without really learning any extra skills, then how is PR a separate profession? However, I believe that the more organisations recognise the need for communication and reputation management, and for a separate PR department, the more likely is PR to be recognised as a profession. To a certain extent this is already happening.
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